Falling Up
by somewhat satisfied
Summary: The higher Hermione felt, the harder she fell into this wild life style. Fortunately, it was her little summertime secret…that is until Draco found out. Will he reveal her secret side to her peers or will he fall into the same trap? Warning, OC & OOC characters, foul language, and themes regarding substance abuse. Set before the war, M for later chapters.
1. Euphoria

**Author's Note: Hello, this is my first fan fiction, so reviews on what to improve or just reviews critiquing whether you like the story or not is much appreciated. Thank you, I hope you enjoy **

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It was adrenaline; pure, undiluted adrenaline pumping through her veins. All she could hear was the sound of the music pounding in her ears and all she could see was the vibrant symphony of colour cascading from the ceiling on the dark dance floor. She had never felt so alive. This was pure euphoria.

At this very moment in time, she did not have a care in the world. In her mind, she was on top of the world. Shaking her mass of brown curls in a zealous state, arms covered in glow bracelets flailing from left to right, on occasion jumping as high as she felt, she closed her eyes to the and danced to the music.

She didn't know when it began but sometime in mid-June, she started to get wrapped up in this scene. She never meant for it to happen, she just somehow got tangled with the raves and before she knew it she was hooked.

During her energetic dancing, she briefly wondered how she wound up here, at this point in her life. She thought back to when it all started when she met Zuly. If someone had told her that the pair of them would be friends, she would have laughed outright to their face. Zuly was many things she disliked in a person: she was selfish, she was careless, she drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, and worst of all she abused drugs. Zuly was definitely someone she initially never meant to acquaint herself with. However, that quickly changed when they met at Kris' infamous house party.

She unintentionally shook her head, trying to stop the train of thought to analyze her summer life-style. Her impulsive side told her to shut up and enjoy the moment. And she promptly followed her other half's instructions.

"See, Herms! I knew you'd have a great time. You just needed to let down your inhibitions." Kris yelled in her ear as he snaked his arms around her waist.

She gave a lazy smile, "Fine! You were right." She replied back, leaning her head against his neck, her hands sliding to cup the back of his head. God, everything was heightened; even the touch of his hair felt like heaven. To an objective observer, one might think these two were an item. But Hermione knew better, it was just the influence of the high. She opened her eyes once more to visually drink in all the beautiful colours; but something in her line of vision grasped her attention.

She spotted a specifically familiar face amongst the muggle crowd. Along with his face, she would be able to pick out that platinum blond hair anywhere. As she kept her wide gaze on him, and it appeared he had also spotted her in that same moment.

He was, if possible, more astonished at her presence at the rave than she was to see him at the abandoned warehouse.

However, the battle of the stunned stares was short lift when there were various yells of "Everybody split!" and "The police are shutting it down!".

Kris grabbed her hand, and started to run, while Zuly who was situated to her right followed suite.

Hermione knew the drill, run and don't stop running until they get to Kris' car. As she briefly looked back, Draco had already disappeared from site.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

Months had passed since she'd seen him at that warehouse. School was starting today and she was back to the world of witchcraft and wizardry. As fun and wild as her summer was, she truly missed this side of her life. She missed the magic, she missed the assignments, and most of all she missed her best friends.

It was the first time that she had been apart for so long from Harry and Ron; but her mother insisted keep in touch with her cousin, Mindy, and make muggle friends outside of Hogwarts so that she could have a proper balance of magic and muggle life. If only her mother knew what a bad influence Mindy was.

But that was all in the summer. She was just glad to be back in her natural environment. She was waiting at Platform 9 ¾ to see if she spotted red hair.

"Looking for someone?" She heard the masculine voice right behind her ear. She didn't expect someone to be so close to her and slightly jumped at the sound of his voice. The brunette turned around and to her utter joy she was face to face with the boy who lived.

"Harry!" Before she could even think she, embraced him into a giant bear hug. Looking to her left, she noticed the tall red head and also included him in to the hug.

"I've missed you guys." She already knew that Harry would stay at the Burrow for the last portion of the summer to get away from the Dursleys. A big part of her wished she did join up with her two best mates before they started their 6th year at Hogwarts. That way she would have never met Zuly, Kris, and the others. But an even bigger part of her was also glad that she had met them because they had opened her eyes to a whole other world; one which she would probably never disclose to Harry or Ron. She knew that they would never understand why she attended those types of parties or why she even bothered to continue hanging out with those corrupted teens.

It was just better if the boys did not know that side of her life. She decided that all the events that transpired during the holidays would remain her little secret.

"It really sucks that your mum made you hang out with family this summer, we really missed you too." Ron stated.

Hermione released them from the embrace and cheerily said "Yes, it was a bit unfair, but at least we're all together again."

"Hermione, dear how have you been?" asked a mature, feminine voice.

"Mrs. Weasley! Ginny!" she exclaimed, each giving them a brief hug. "I am doing fine. I just miss practicing spells, though. How are the both of you?" She asked the ginger haired women.

"We're doing quite alright. But you lot must quickly run along before you miss the train. We wouldn't want another second year incident to repeat itself now would we?" Mrs. Weasley chuckled as she made the remark, but they all remembered how furious she had been when the two boys had stolen the flying car during their second year.

Ron internally shivered at the memory of the howler. "Mum's right, let's head inside the train. We can catch up once we're in the cabin."

With that said they all followed suite and headed inside the train, waving good bye to the mother of the Weasley clan.

Harry detected a vacant cabin and they all decided to occupy it, save for Ginny who saw a group of friends in her year and decided to sit with them.

"So, what did you do during your vacation? You said in your letters that you were with your cousin, Mandy was it?" Ron asked.

At this question, so many events flooded her mind. To be quite honest, a lot of the events with her and her new friends were quite a blur. "Her name's Mindy, and I told you we just spent time with some of her friends at their houses. It was not eventful, really," she replied with a smile and all the innocence she could muster.

"But what I can't wait for is to get started with the assignments for Alchemy. Being able to finally take that class is one of the best things about being in the sixth year," the bright witch stated. And she truthfully meant it. She was glad to get back to her studious self, engrossing herself in her studies rather than the rush of the raves. This would allow her to get in touch with her old self, bringing her back some stability.

Ron rolled his eyes at the comment. "Typical Hermione, so obsessed with school work before school even begins," he said with a grin.

"You know I can't help myself." The trio lightly chuckled at her reply.

Harry was about to open his mouth add something else when the door suddenly opened and interrupted his thought process.

To their displeasure, standing in the doorway was Malfoy, yet to their slight surprize, his cronies were not by his side.

'Well, I guess this wouldn't be a traditional Hogwarts train ride if we weren't harassed by Malfoy,' Hermione thought with slight annoyance.

He eyed the triad. Looking at each of them individually as he addressed them one by one. "Hello, boy who just won't die," he lazily stated. "Weasel" he said carelessly. Once his eyes landed on the bushy haired teen, he said "Granger," slowly with a slight grin.

"How was your summer holiday? Was it full of crazy festivities?" At this remark, he directed his attention straight at Hermione.

"Sod off Malfoy." Ron told the blond, he was not in the mood to have the blond pest ruin their light atmosphere.

Hermione kept quiet and promptly decided to ignore him, refusing to yield to whatever game he was planning on playing.

"You know, I would have sworn you were going to end up as Weasel King's girl, but I see you've moved on to another less pathetic choice for a boyfriend. Tell me Weasel, what do you think of her new boyfriend?"

Ron and Harry looked from the blond to their friend with quizzical eyes.

"What are you on about, Malfoy," Harry asked confused.

Draco looked at Hermione's glare and pieced it together. "Oh, you mean to tell me that they don't know about you and your little nighttime adventures?"

"Don't listen to him; he's just spewing out rubbish." Hermione acted like Malfoy was sprouting nonsense.

"Enough of this, just leave Malfoy." Harry told him firmly.

"Fine by me, wouldn't want to be wasting my time with you wastes of space anyways." And with that, he turned around and walked away from the cabin.

"I'm honestly not surprised that he comes here to harass us anymore. The idiot has nothing better to do with his time."

Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.

"But what was he talking about, Hermione," the red head asked, slightly hurt that his friend may have found a boyfriend over the summer.

'Damn Malfoy and his stupid big mouth,' she thought in annoyance. "I told you, he was speaking total nonsense. He was just trying to stir up some trouble," she replied as she looked at them both.

The boys just looked at each other and gave a mild shrug and dismissed the slightly weird situation.

"So, tell me, what were you guys up to for the last portion of the summer?" She asked them.

Harry smiled, "Well, the twins decided to start a prank war…" and he went on to describe the fun events they got themselves into.

As Harry and Ron went on about their vacation stories, Hermione listened, and laughed on occasion; however, part of her attention was focused on her thoughts. She didn't like that stunt Malfoy pulled a few minutes earlier. He almost revealed to her friends the part of her she did not want them to see; at least not yet.

The next time she saw him in private, she would have a little word with him. She wanted to make it clear that she was not about to let him walk all over her. Besides, she had some leverage as well. After all, what was the bigot wizard doing in a strictly muggle environment, especially in an environment that was so unsavoury?


	2. Wheeling

It had been a week since she had returned to Hogwarts. Everything around her seemed to be back in order. She was back in Gryffindor tower, drowning herself in her reading materials. To her other Gryffindor peers, she was just regular old Hermione and her bookwormish ways. Little did they know that she was really trying to occupy all her spare time with her assignments to get her mind off the obsession of using again.

All she could think about was the last time she partied; and that last time, she partied hard. The more she reminisced about her last experience, the more she wanted to use it again.

'God, who have I become?' She sadly thought. 'To be fair, it wasn't my fault why I started to use the empathogenic drug.' She tried to reason with herself. 'And it's not like I use it daily. I just take it for special occasions, for when I want to let down my hair and have a good time.' She further tried to convince herself.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

She then remembered the very first time she tried the drug. She was with Mindy and she was not in the mood to go to some random boy's house for a crowded social gathering. She was never the one for outrageous parties, with loud music and plenty of liquor being distributed about. She had heard of stories of students from previous years holding secret parties in their houses, but she had never been interested to indulge in the social activities. She much preferred get-togethers with her close friends.

Mindy was aware of her cousin's view on huge house parties, but wanted to persuade her that she could have fun in a loud and large environment. Since her mother wanted the 16 year old to girl to make friends outside of her boarding school, she thought it would be a splendid idea to bring her to Kris' party. Once Hermione approached Kris' property, she knew that she would definitely have a sour time. This wasn't a party, this was a rager!

Hermione started to turn around, "No way, I'm not going in there." She told her kin.

"Herms, you promised!" she said grabbing her slender arm, pulling her to the direction of the obnoxiously loud electronic music. "You promised to come and meet my friends and that you would not back down. Are you a woman of your word, or are you just a liar?" Mindy asked, trying to guilt trip her cousin.

The bushy brunette huffed, "Fine, I'll go to the stupid party, but we're leaving after one hour."

She regarded the house with distain, whereas Mindy had a look of pure glee as she dragged her cousin inside.

Hermione drank all the visual stimuli she could muster. It appeared that the majority of the guests were covered in various colours of neon pink, traffic-cone orange, electric blue, luminescent green and other vivid colours. The teens didn't just paint their arms and legs; they painted their hair and face too. What was even stranger was that some of the boys and girls were wearing sunglasses indoors.

'Well that's perfectly logical to wear sunglasses at 11 at night.' The witch thought sarcastically.

While meandering for a few seconds they heard a feminine voice address them. "Hey Mindy, who's your friend?" A petite girl with long, black hair inquired. She too was covered in the neon paint. She painted a heart on each cheek, and had much more symbols and words along her arms and chest. The girl looked roughly the same age as the Granger girls, but this girl looked far more mischievous.

"Zuly, this is my cousin, Hermione. She's been sent away to boarding school and now her mum wants her to socialize with people outside the school. So I brought her here to introduce her to a new crowd."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Mindy didn't have to disclose that she's here to make new friends. "It's nice to meet you, Zuly," she told the young girl.

"Likewise," was Zuly's short response. "I'm heading back to the basement, I took about 15 minutes ago and I should be wheeling any minute now, if you want find me I'll be in the basement where all the black light is." She said gesturing to her glow in the dark paint.

Hermione was slightly confused. What did she mean by "took" and what did she mean by "wheeling?" But she didn't question it further as they ventured towards the kitchen of the house.

In this area, they were greeted by a 6 foot male with light brown hair, and a bit of 6 o'clock stubble growing. "Mindy! Glad you can make it! And who's this angel you brought with you?"

The witch had to resist rolling her eyes at his corny comment.

"Don't you dare think about making a move on my cousin, Kris! She's too innocent and pure to be corrupted by the likes of you" she said with mirth, but there was a hint of truth to her demand.

"Hello, Kris, my name is Hermione. This is a pretty nice..erm.. party you've got going on." She tried to say with all the politeness she could muster.

"Thank you, love." She internally cringed at the term love. She hated when people she hardly knew gave her pet names. "Can I get you anything? Beer? Rum and Coke? Orange juice?" He said the last option with a suggestive smile.

Before she could even reply, her cousin cut in "She won't be having anything to drink for now, Herms doesn't drink much. But I will definitely take some after," she said with a huge grin.

Hermione was taken aback that her cousin would make the choice for her, and peeved that she naturally assumed she did not drink. Of course she was accurate in her assumption; the 16 year old had only ever drank alcohol twice in her life, and only got tipsy once, at a family wedding.

Before she could make an argument about her freedom to do whatever the hell she pleased, Zuly came to Mindy's side and grabbed her arm. "Come on downstairs, I'm starting to wheel and we need to get you painted up so you can wheel with me," the black haired girl said as she was pulling her blonde cousin away.

"But what about Herms?" she asked slightly worried.

"Don't worry, I'm sure your cousin will be fine on her own for a few minutes, she can't be that much of a social pariah," She convinced Mindy, dragging her to the direction of the basement door. With the pair bounding down the stairs, Kris turned his attention back to the teen witch.

"So, Herms, since you don't drink alcohol, how 'bout you have some orange juice instead?" Kris asked innocently enough.

She didn't see the harm in accepting his offer. "Sure I'll have some," she replied.

Kris poured her the juice, and handed it to the girl's small hand. "Thank you," she told the brunet.

"The pleasure's mine, love."

Kris watched as she drank the juice eagerly, not realizing how thirsty she was. She noticed it had a slightly bizarre taste, but she wasn't sure if it was her imagination.

"Is their alcohol in this juice?" she asked hoping that he didn't spike the orange liquid.

"Don't worry I didn't put alcohol in the juice, I wouldn't give you alcohol, since Mindy advised me that you do not drink," he said with a smile.

"Good," she smiled back with relief and resumed drinking more of the vitamin C filled liquid. "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm going to search for Mindy, if you don't mind?" Something about this guy was slightly off-putting. He seemed friendly and sociable enough, but there was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on that made her have her guard up around him.

"Sure thing, go find your cousin. Hope to see you downstairs later," he said with a crooked smile.

"I'll keep that in mind," the witch gave a small smile back. She turned around and walked towards the basement door. As she walked down into the dark lighting of the basement, she spotted Mindy who had put green and pink streaks in her hair.

"Hey cuz," she waved the brunette, about to introduce her to another friend. Before commencing the introduction, the blonde paused and stared at the cup in Hermione's hand. "What the hell is that in your hand?"

"It's just orange juice," she responded stunned, not expecting this reaction.

Alarmed, Mindy shouted, "I told that idiot not to give you anything to drink! Shit" she shook her head.

Now Hermione was starting to panic. "What's wrong with the orange juice," she was about to drop her cup. "I asked Kris if there was any alcohol in the juice, and he told me no," she responded, getting more worried by the second.

"Well he certainly didn't lie. There is no alcohol in that juice." At this statement, Hermione started to relax. If there wasn't any alcohol, then why the big fuss?

Her cousin continued, "There's T in that drink," she told her with even more alarm.

The curly haired teen contorted her face into a quizzical mask. "What on earth is T?"

Mindy looked her dead in the eyes and responded, "Herms, don't freak out," which ironically made her freak out more, "but you just ingested a drug which contains a purer form of ecstasy. And judging from how little juice you have left, it seems you ingested a good amount."

Hermione was trying to process what her cousin was saying. "What?! I've been drugged?" she elevated her voice.

"Shush! Calm down, and lower your voice."

"I just found out that I've been drugged with ecstasy, a substance that I would never try willingly on my own, and you want to tell me to calm down?!" the teen shrieked.

"Don't worry, the effects of T will start to kick in and will last for roughly an hour and a half."

"This is complete nonsense, I'm leaving and I'm going home," Hermione shouted furiously.

Mindy sighed, "I wouldn't do that if I were you Herms. Your parents wouldn't be too keen on the idea of their daughter coming in high as a kite now would they?"

Hermione paused, and knew that as angry as she was at her cousin, she had a point. She had to stay here and let the drug run its course. Once the effects were gone, she could then leave this messed up excuse for a party.

"Fine I'll stay until the effects wear off, but as soon as it's over, I'm out of here." She said bitterly.

oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo

Fifteen minutes have passed and she felt fine. Perhaps this was just a mean and mental prank her cousin was playing on her because she didn't feel any different.

As she sat and watched Mindy talk to a few more friends, Hermione was unconsciously tapping her fingers to the beat of the bass. She noticed the bass gradually started to get louder and louder. And with this realization, she started to bob her head more intensely to the beat. She wasn't aware of how much her upper body was following the music. Then suddenly, some of the neon lights hanging from the ceiling started to change colours from orange to hot, highlighter pink, and the colour had never seemed more beautiful in her entire life!

She was in complete awe! The amount of how beautiful the visual stimulus appeared was breathtaking beyond words. Like this was the first time she had ever seen such a variation of this shade of pink, and in utter state of happiness she started to dance more vivaciously to the beat as the tempo of the music began to speed up.

It was at that moment that she knew the T had kicked in, and she was in heaven. This feeling was so foreign to her; she almost couldn't put what she was experiencing into words. Everything was heightened: sight, sound, touch. It was almost overwhelming.

He looked up to see her cousin dancing her way towards her. "Are you wheeling yet? 'Cause you look like you're having a fabulous time." Mindy said showing the largest sets of pearly whites.

"Wheeling?" Hermione inquired with a full-fledged smile.

"It means 'are you feeling the effects of it'? It comes from the term cartwheeling, because it feels like you're cartwheeling with joy," the blonde explained.

Now she understood what Zuly meant by "wheeling" earlier. "Yes, I am definitely wheeling," she replied, delighted.

"Good, now enjoy the moment dear cousin!" Mindy instructed with glee as she grabbed Hermione's arm and started to dance with her.

And that was the first, but certainly not the last time, that the formerly innocent witch tried T.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

"Penny for your thoughts?" the younger Weasley sister asked her brother's best friend.

Hermione quickly looked up as Ginny interrupted her reverie of the first time she was subjected to the substance.

"Just catching up on some light reading," she responded as she lifted the 700 page text book.

"Really? Because you were staring at that book for at least two minutes without your eyes shifting from left to right," the red head said.

'Damn her for being perceptive,' she thought. "You caught me, I was just thinking about unimportant stuff."

"Alright, if you say so," Ginny said disbelieving but she let the matter go. "We're all heading to the Great Hall a little early if you want to join us."

"Sure I'll be there in a few minutes," Hermione smiled.

A few moments after actually reading some pages of her book she snapped it shut and made her way towards the Great Hall.

After walking down a few flights of stairs, she detected the blond prick who almost revealed her secret. She noticed that he was completely solitary. 'Perfect, now's my moment' she thought.

All week he had been making sly comments and taunting her about her appearance at the rave and her interaction with her 'boyfriend' while her friends and peers were around. Of course the comments were vague and only she knew what he was really talking about, but she absolutely had enough of his crap.

She briskly walked up to him with purpose and pulled out her wand. Now, normally she was not one to willingly go up to others and initiate an argument. However, she wanted make things crystal clear to Malfoy, and wanted him to get the message.


	3. Cranky

"Is it just me, or is Hermione acting…a little bit strange since we've been back at school?" The green eyed boy asked.

As two thirds of the golden trio sat in the increasingly crowded Great Hall area, they were soon joined by the youngest female Weasley.

"In what way?" Ron replied.

"Well, she seems sort of grouchy at times. Like when she snapped at you asked her why she looked sad; or when she snapped at us for trying to wake her up, and she ended up arriving to class late twice. She hardly ever oversleeps, and she's NEVER late to class. I'm telling you, I think something's up with her," Harry proclaimed.

The red head pondered what his friend was saying. "Maybe it's her time of the month," he suggested. This earned a smack on his arm from his younger sister.

"Ouch!" he rubbed his arm in irritation. "Nah, I think she's just having an off week. I mean she's not perfect, and there is a first for everything. I'm sure it's nothing to be even remotely worried about."

"I think Harry's right," Ginny chipped in. "I don't think it's anything to worry about, but I do think she's been acting just a little bit strange."

"What other things have you noticed that's slightly off about Hermione?" Harry directed his question to Ginny.

"Whenever I catch her alone, I notice that she always stares into space. Almost like she's thinking really hard about something, and it looks like it troubles her a bit. Like just a few moments ago, she had her textbook open, but she was so deep in thought that she wasn't even reading it. And the look on her face was just plain miserable."

Without a sound, the delicious food magically appeared on all the house tables.

Ron looked at Harry. "Well maybe something is bothering her," he said nonchalantly as he dug into the platter of food before him.

"How bout we just ask her if there's anything she wants to talk about?" the black haired wizard suggested as he followed Ron's suite.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ginny agreed.

After hurriedly chewing his food, Ron said, "Fine we'll ask her when she comes down, but I still think there's nothing to worry about. She's probably just upset that she hasn't read three chapters ahead of schedule or something."

########## ########## ########## ######### ##########

Hermione had really been fed up with all his little jabs about her having a boyfriend, or hinting that she's not as pristine as everyone thought. Seeing him alone in the hallway was the perfect time to approach him and tell him to cut the crap.

As Hermione approached the blond jerk, she saw him look up and say, "Hello, Herms." He purposely stressed the nickname given solely by her summertime friends. "Do scar head and weasel also call you by that name, or is it just the filthy drug addicted muggles you associate with that call you that?"

She drew out her wand, and he was now a little more vigilant. He mimicked her and pulled out his wand too. He knew she was not the one to start fights; however he did not want to take the risk of being at the end of one of her curses. Though, her blood was dirty, he had noticed she was pretty quick with her wand. Not to mention that could be surprisingly violent at times, like the time she had punched him in third year.

"Let's get one thing straight, I don't associate myself with anybody who abuses illegal narcotics," she said as she approached even further. At this point she looked livid.

"Really, because I've been told that many people that go to those parties, what is it raves they call them, are often under the influence of T. And I've been further informed that people under T get extremely happy, don't they Granger? Judging from the look of pure ecstasy on your face as you were dancing like a whore on the dance floor, I'd say you've been 'taking', haven't you?"," he accused her with a cocky grin.

Her eyes widen at the terminology 'taking', knowing that it's code for taking T. She shakes her head and denies the accusation. "You're wrong, you don't know what you're talking about," she defensively stated, started to raise her voice.

"If I'm lying, then why didn't your friends know about your little rave adventure with your boyfriend? I'm sure it's because you know that if they ever found out that their sweet, innocent Gryffindor princess was reveling in illegal substances, it would tarnish your perfect reputa-"

"Oh sod off, Malfoy!" She cut him off. "Since you want to drag reputation into this, why the hell were you at a party were only muggleborns could be found?" she shouted, red faced. "If it's such a bad place, why were you lurking about in the first place? I thought all muggles were beneath you! Tell me, do YOU 'take' as well? You must be using it since you know so much about it, you hypocrite! I assume your reputation as a muggle-hating elitist would significantly decrease if people found out you attended those parties and frolicked with muggles."

"For your information, I've only ever set foot in the place once, and that's because I got dragged there by a friend. But I assure you, I would never go back there with those wastes of space." He said with exaggerated distain.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You were probably hunting muggles for sport anyways; I mean the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree, right". She normally never brought up anyone's family in arguments because it was always a low blow. But this time she didn't care.

At this comment, Malfoy's expression quickly shifted from distain to anger. Furious, he stepped closer to Hermione, trying to intimidate her by towering over her. But the witch wasn't fazed by his attempt to bully her. Sure he was almost half a foot taller than she was, but that didn't scare her.

"Don't you ever talk about my father. You're too filthy to even bring him up in conversation," he said in quite, but anger filled tone.

Just as the pair of them looked ready to exchange curses and spells, Professor Flitwick, came around the corner of the hallway, but the two didn't even see him. "What is going on here?"

They both diverted their attention to the professor down the hall. "Nothing," Malfoy responded.

"Good." He said sternly as the two distanced themselves a little.

"I think you two should best be off to where ever it was you were heading to."

Before, Malfoy could leave, Hermione leaned in whispered, "If you ever tell anyone that I 'take', I will tell everyone that you attend the same 'muggle infested, narcotic abusing parties that I do'. I assure you, I will drag you down with me."

With that she spun away from him and continued on her path to the Great Hall.

Now Malfoy was really mad. This witch thought that she could make threats to him. Ha! Over his dead body.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

With an aggravated march, Hermione made her way to the Gryffindor table in the Hall. It was clear to her friends that she was angry about something. As she took a seat to join them, they eyed her carefully.

"What's got you so wound up?" Ron asked.

"Nothing." She stated bluntly. It was clear that she was not in the mood to discuss what had gotten her so agitated.

The boys briefly looked at Ginny with curiosity etched all over their faces. She mirrored their expressions and rose her eye brows to indicate 'I have no idea what's up with her'.

'She wasn't mad when I saw her a few minutes ago,' the Weasley witch thought.

There was then a growing silence. The three of them weren't sure if now was the time to ask Hermione if something is bothering her and causing her to act the way she was during the past week. She already looked peeved at the moment, and they were not sure if this was the perfect moment to question her about her cranky attitude.

Harry decided to be the brave one of the three, volunteering to ask her first.

He cleared his throat, "Umm… Hermione…we've noticed that you've been acting slightly…different since you've come back to Hogwarts." He was trying to choose his words wisely to not tick her off any further.

She eyed them with what was both a quizzical and slightly defensive expression. As she was about to ask what they were talking about, Harry continued.

"It's just that we've noticed you've been a little…moody lately. Not to mention, you've overslept and came to class late…twice."

"Is there something going on that you want to talk to us about?" Ginny stepped in.

Hermione looked at all three of her friends and her anger towards Malfoy started to dissipate. Her expression softened, "I hadn't realized I was acting any differently." She looked down sheepishly, "Sorry if I've been acting a little short-tempered with you guys lately, but don't worry nothing is going on. I was probably just stress of having to complete the first essay for History of Magic," she said which wasn't fully a lie. As much as her views taking illegal pharmaceuticals have drastically changed, she was still the same meticulous school girl that needed to complete her assignments as soon as she received them.

"But that paper is not due for three weeks," Ron said wide eyed.

The brown haired witch nodded, "Yeah, well you know how I am with getting a jump start on the assignments," she said animatedly.

The red head diverted his attention to his best mate and sister, "See, I told you it was nothing to worry about."

The two nodded their heads slight agreement. Harry wasn't quite sure, but he still was not fully convinced. However, they all dropped the subject as Hermione switched the topic.

"So what have you lot been up to on this lovely Sunday afternoon?" Granger asked.

And so commenced a new conversation about what they did during the day.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

It was a particularly dreary Monday afternoon, and Malfoy was sitting bored in class. Occasionally focussing on what the professor was saying, he idly twiddled his quill in his fingers. He just wanted to get out of class and relax with his mates for a bit.

As professor Snape droned on, the teen started to wander his eyes around the class, which didn't harbour many students because of it was an advanced potions course. As he seized up an assortment of students belonging to various houses, his eyes landed on Hermione. She was staring up at Snape, listening attentively and drinking every word he was delivering.

Draco just didn't understand it. She was still the same annoying know it all who constantly felt the need to answer every question, much to his irritation. But he couldn't get the image of her dancing seductively with that other guy from rave out of his head. He hated to admit it, but she wasn't too sore on the eyes that night, especially when she was out of her loose fitting uniform and wearing the tight fitting summer attire.

There was just such a big dissociation about the way she acted that night and the way she portrayed herself to her peers at Hogwarts. It was just so… uncharacteristic of her.

Thinking about how carefree and happy she looked made him think about how he ended up at the warehouse that night.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

It was a warm August day and the only Malfoy air felt like going out with his friend of two years, Nikolas. He was bored and didn't feel like spending time with many of his Slytherin classmates during the summer holidays because they were more like acquaintances. Of course he socialized with them outside of school on occasion but he just felt like heading out with a true friend tonight.

Nikolas had told him that he knew the perfect place to have fun. Though, Malfoy and his friend sometimes differed on what they perceived as fun. Malfoy preferred to stick to his own kind and only socialize with the purebloods; whereas Nikolas didn't really care with whom he was socializing with, as long as he was having a good old time. Though, that wasn't to confuse him for ever wanting to become seriously involved and procreate with a muggle. It was still a core value ingrained in him to only ever marry a pureblood and keep the magical blood untainted.

Nikolas was definitely a rebel when it came to having a wild night out. During the school year, he attended a school in Dusseldorf, Germany. Though originally born in England with German heritage, his parents thought it would have been better to send him to a school which had a higher rate of pureblood student attendance because they did not approve of Hogwarts accepting the so many muggle-borns. His parents did not want him to get influenced by muggles and their strange habits, and they did not want him to be brainwashed into thinking it was ok to mix the bloodlines. But, little did they know that their son was frequently associating with muggles during his spare time.

"So this old rickety shack is supposed to be fun?" Draco asked unimpressed, eyeing the huge warehouse in the deserted grungy looking area. "The place looks like it's about to cave in at any minute. Come on Kol, there must be another place that can be more fun than this."

"Tsk, tsk. You're always too quick to judge. Just give it a chance, it might surprise you; you might even have fun," he answered back smiling. "Besides, we're not just here to have a good night."

At that last statement, Draco looked at him questioningly. "What else are we here for?"

"I'm also here to make some quick money," Kol replied with a smirk.

"Make money on what?" He asked even more curious.

His blue eyed friend took out a little transparent bag with a light pink powdered substance. "This little bag full of fun makes people have a really good time. Muggles seem to be especially fond of it; so I thought, why just stick to selling it to wizards and witches? I might as well distribute it to the muggles, make a little bit of money on the side.

Examining the bag, Malfoy asked, "What's it called?"

"It's called pixie dust" Kol says with a smile.

Draco bursts out laughing, "You can't expect me to believe that's actually the dust produced from pixies."

"Of course not, it's just the street name for it. It actually comes from a magical plant originally grown in South America."

"Do you want to try some? First trial's free" he says with a sly smile.

"No thanks, I'm not in the mood to try you're pixie powder tonight," he refused, lightly mocking the name of the substance. "Besides, I'm already starting to feel the effects from the firewhiskey we drank earlier. I assume mixing the two would end badly."

"Suite yourself," Nikolas said heading towards the entrance of the abandoned building.

Minutes after they entered, Kol began scouting boys and girls to see if they would buy the 'dust'. Some people gleefully accepted, while others hesitantly declined.

This environment was so foreign and bizarre to Malfoy. The music was ear splittingly loud and many teens were sporting these bracelets and sticks which glowed fluorescently in the dark. Many of what appeared to be an adolescent and young adult crowd were behaving in ways that were too sexually open in public. He even saw one bloke massaging the breast of girl he was dancing with. The blond wasn't in any way a prude; however this display was a culture shock. This type of public behaviour was definitely not common within the wizarding world. 'Weird, filthy muggles' Draco thought.

After 15 minutes of watching his friend make a profit and dance his way through the crowd, he had enough, and was about to tell Kol he was bored and he was leaving.

Just as he was about to approach his friend, the drum of the beat began to drop and he heard various whistles of enthusiasm in the crowd. He took note that people clearly liked when the beat dropped because many people started to raise their arms in joy. It was at this moment that he noticed her. She had on a tiny white string strap tank top and bright red shorts. They weren't the shortest shorts, but they weren't the most modest shorts either.

Raising her arms in the air with her big curls were cascading from left to right, and eyes closed supporting a huge smile, she looked as if she was experiencing an intimate type of pleasure. 'That cannot be mudblood Granger,' he thought in pure shock. He then noticed that a tall brunet with white framed sun-glasses was dancing close behind her. The brunet suggestively snaked his arms around her small waist as he leaned his head close to her ear to tell her something. Their dancing was getting really intimate. Her partner's arms were slowly starting to wander upward towards her chest while she started to move her hips into his groin to the follow the rhythm of the music. Draco had never thought it was possible for the witch to act in any other way than a prudish, self-righteous, know-it all. He still could not process what he was witnessing. As she answered the mysterious guy, he noticed that her hands started to seductively wander up the back of his neck and grabbed the back of his brown locks.

'No, this can't be Hermione Granger!' he thought. She would never be in a place like this, let alone interact with the opposite sex that way in public. It was just so out of character for her that he just kept staring to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Who's that you keep staring at?" Kol shouted in his ear. "Are you looking at Herms?"

"Herms?"

"Yeah, the girl in the white top and the red shorts. I've heard about her from Kris, the guy she's dancing with. She's quite the firecracker when she gets high, but I've never really talked to her," the blue eyed wizard confirmed.

At that moment, Hermione opened her eyes and made direct eye contact with the blond. At the realization that one of her schoolmates was here witnessing her acts of debauchery, her eyes started to widen in realization that she was caught in the act.

Malfoy stared right back at her, with wide eyes as well, still trying to process the whole situation.

That's when the yells started, and Kol told him to immediately get away from the premises. Before he could think, he just ran with Nikolas away from the party, as they headed towards the portkey which brought them there in the first place.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

"Am I boring you Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Snape droned.

This snapped the blond out of his reverie. "No, professor," he answers.

"If you want to daydream and not take pertinent notes, I suggest you save your time and not come to class at all," the potion's teacher irritably stated. As he returned his attention to the class, he instructed them to complete the remaining chapters from the textbook and dismissed the class.

With his dismissal, the students grouped up with their friends and slowly exited the class. As he departed the class room, Hermione accidently pushed into him, apologizing automatically out of courtesy as she was rushing off to God knows where. It really annoyed him when people pushed into him, especially her of all people. Suddenly coming to mind, he thought back on last night's events, when she threatened to 'bring him down with her'. He wanted to establish that he was not one to be blackmailed.

"Watch it Herms," he says with a sly smile. "Are the drugs really affecting you that bad that you can't even walk properly without stumbling into people?" He says loudly for the whole class to hear.

The volume of the surrounding students' voices quickly quietened at Malfoy's comment.

All eyes fell on her to see what Malfoy was referring to. It was at this moment when Hermione finally lost it. She dramatically dropped her books to the floor and swiftly turned to face him. Quicker than he could react, she impulsively punched him in the face.


	4. Drenched

"You stupid bitch!" He shouted grabbing his nose.

Hermione looked as equally shocked as rest of the witnessing students. As soon as her fist made contact with his pale face, she instantly regretted her impulsive action. Both of her hands cupped her opened mouth, astonished that she had just pulled such a stupid stunt in front of all her peers.

He looked down at his hand and saw the blood trickling down. How could such a small hand pack a powerful punch? He normally didn't agree with hitting females, especially ones that were smaller than his size. But for this filthy lunatic, he was almost willing to make an exception.

Instead, he quickly pulled out his want ready to curse her into the next century, for humiliating him in front of the whole class.

"You'll pay for that, Mudblood!" he spat murderously.

Ready to step in Hermione's defense, Ron and Harry were about to pull out their wands; but before things could escalate any further, professor Snape intervened.

"Enough!" the potions master barked as he made his way to the core of the commotion. He processed Malfoy's bloody nose, then darted his attention to Hermione whom half the crowd was staring at in stunned silence. "Detention for the both of you, and 50 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin! The rest of you can leave."

As the students started to disperse away from the scene, Harry and Ron still remained by Hermione's side. "Just because you are famous, does not mean that you're excluded from that command" Snape addressed Harry. "The both of you can see Ms. Granger after I am done discussing their punishment," he told the two boys. With hesitation, they looked at their female friend one last time before parting ways.

"Why I'm I getting punished?! I'm the one who got assaulted!" Malfoy said pointing to his bleeding face.

"I don't want to hear another word of it. Just get inside the classroom so I can give you your detentions."

As the young witch and wizard grabbed their seats, they waited to hear what their punishment would be.

Before he told them what their form of detention entitled, Snape casted a spell that removed the blood away from his faces and clothes. "Thanks professor." Malfoy said with his face still conveying anger towards the crazed witch beside him.

"It is completely unacceptable for you to engage in physical violence at Hogwarts," the professor stated looking straight at Hermione. "For now, I will just issue you both two weeks detention. Every day starting from today at 4:30 pm, you will both come to my office and I will assign you punishment that I see fit."

"I still don't see how that's fair! She attacke-"

"I told you, I did not want to hear any further on the matter." Snape snapped in irritation. "I'm sure you must have done something drastic to bring about that reaction from Ms. Granger. Not to mention I saw that you intended to curse her in retaliation. But for whatever reason you guys were fighting, I do not want to hear it because quite frankly I don't care. However, since you resorted to violence, I will see what the headmaster has to say about your extra punishment," he said this information strictly to the young witch.

"Finally, at least some justice!" Malfoy huffed in annoyance.

"Be quiet. I don't want to hear another incident like this happening between the pair of you again. Next time you will not be so lucky to simply get detention. Since it is now four o'clock, we can get a head start on the detention. Follow me to my office, where I'll issue your punishment."

In silence, the pair followed their greasy haired potions professor out of the classroom and into the depths of the school dungeons where his office resided.

Reaching an old rickety looking door, Snape opened it to reveal a somewhat cramped storage room full of cauldrons and potion ingredients.

"Stay right here, I will return in a few moments. And do not think of attacking one another with spells or physical violence," He said looking squarely at Hermione.

As he turned and walked away, Malfoy waited until he was out of earshot.

"If you ever punch me again, especially in public, I will not hesitate to punch you back," he said seething.

The brunette looked up at him and responded, "I told you not to make those remarks anymore, and what did you decide to do? Say it loudly for the whole class to hear!"

"You're really stupid you know that? If nobody thought I was telling the truth before, they will certainly think you do drugs now."

"You know for someone who just got their nose smashed in, you're really smug. Was the first lesson not enough for you?" she responded boldly.

This really ticked off the wizard. 'Screw this,' he thought reaching for his wand. But before he could even complete the action of hexing her, they both heard the footsteps of what they assumed to be the professor's footsteps getting louder.

Sure enough, Snape returned to the potion's cupboard with two tooth brushes in hand. "I want you to clean all the cauldrons in this room, and if you manage to finish that today, then I'll fetch more cauldrons; and make sure they are absolutely spotless."

Groaning, Malfoy reached for the first tooth brush while Hermione reached for the second in silence.

She looked at all the cauldrons stacked upon one another, there were an average of fifty of them, ranging from small to large. And they looked like they were caked with leftover residue that was built up over the years. Internally sighing she knew the next two weeks were going to be tedious.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

After the excruciatingly boring task of cleaning the professors disgusting cauldrons, Hermione finally left and headed to the Gryffindor common room. Seconds after she told the portrait the secret password, she stepped into the common area and the noise level in the room dropped to a significant level. She assumed that word had spread quickly about how she had lost her temper with the idiot. Instantaneously, numerous Gryffindors rush to the massively curly haired witch and bombard her with questions as to why she did it.

"The way you punched the ferret was bloody brilliant!" Ron said with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I didn't think you had that in you," Seamus proudly stated.

"What did he say to you to make you snap that way?" Neville asked.

"Let her breath, she just came in," Ginny addressed the inquisitive students.

Hermione gave the Weasley witch a grateful look. "Thank you, Ginny."

"So…why did you punch him?" Ginny asked once everyone quietened down a bit.

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled. She knew Ginny was just as curious as the rest of them.

"Does she really need to a reason to take a swing at him? He is Malfoy after all," the older Weasley brother reasoned to the rest of the Gryffindors. With this comment, everyone nodded in agreement.

"True. So, what type of punishment did Snape give you guys?" Dean asked.

"Luckily, he just gave us two weeks detention. Hopefully, Dumbledore won't suspend me when I see him tomorrow. Anyways, I don't really feel like talking about it, I've just spent the last two hours cleaning dirty cauldrons with a tooth brush. If you all don't mind, I just want to eat dinner and relax."

The Gryffindor crowd were not satisfied with this response and wanted to know more about the incident. However, Ginny spoke up, "Alright everyone, you heard her, stop badgering her with questions." Grumbling about the anti-climactic news, everyone started to disband from the muggleborn and went back to their prior activities.

The only two that remained to find out what really happened were Harry and Ron.

"Since all the others are gone, can you now explain to us why you punched him? Although it was brilliant, it's so unlike you. I've never seen you lose your temper like that… well, not in front of whole class like that," Harry paused as he briefly thought of the time she slapped the blond in their third year. "There must have been something in what he said that triggered that reaction. I mean, I know it's completely absurd to take what he said at value because he mentioned something about you taking drugs, but there must be something about what he said that really pissed you off." At this comment, he noticed Hermione's bright brown eyes gaze down in shame. "Common, Hermione, you can tell us what's up," he encouraged his friend.

"I told you, I'm really fed up of him spreading rumors about me being a drug addict. I guess I've just been stressed about finishing all my assignments and I just acted on impulse. I'm telling you, it's nothing to worry about and it won't happen again," she promised the both of them.

"Are you sure you don't want to take another swing at the git? Maybe we can catch it on film next time because the look on his face was priceless," Ron joked.

Harry and Hermione both chuckled, "Shut up, Ron," she told the red head light-heartedly.

But all joking aside, Harry wasn't convinced that his female friend was telling the complete truth. He knew that she was way more rational and mature than attacking Malfoy simply because he made a stupid comment which had no relevance to being true. However, he let it go for the time being and soon followed them to the Great Hall for supper.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

After an uneventful supper, Hermione excused herself and headed to the library complete some more assignments.

Sitting in the library as she tried to focus on her History of Magic essay, her thoughts kept reverting back to the day's earlier events involving Malfoy and his big mouth. She was still seething about his accusation, but she was even more upset at herself for allowing him to get the best of her. She badly needed to get it together!

She hated to admit it to herself, but now that the week had passed and she's gotten over her depressive period, she wanted to party again. She couldn't get her mind off the last few times she went out with Mindy, Zuly and the others. She knew she shouldn't have done it, but on top of taking "T", she decided to try a new drug they offered called pixie dust. Not knowing how it would affect her, she discovered that she LOVED it. That was the one word she could describe the qualia of experiencing it. When she took the 'dust' she felt all types of pure love: love from a friendship perspective, love in a romantic sense, and even love in a sexual sense. It could give "T" a run for its money. Pixie dust also made her much more energetic and hyper aware of her surroundings.

Shaking her head vigorously she forcefully pushed these thoughts out of her mind, trying to focus on her assignment at hand. Slowly breathing in and out, she continued to write her essay.

After a few more hours of successfully focussing on her paper, she had made great progress and it was nearly complete. Greatly preoccupied with her homework, she didn't acknowledge the librarian who silently approached behind her, informing that the library would soon be closing in a matter of minutes. Jumping out of fright, Hermione thanked the elder woman and packed up her books preparing to head back to Gryffindor quarters.

On her way to the tower, she noticed platinum blond hair reflected from the bright moonlight cascading through one of the windows. To her surprise Malfoy was lurking around one of the corners, yet unaware that she was watching him. Why was he sneakily wandering about when curfew was soon to be in session? But, before she could follow him around the corner, she heard footsteps in the distance. Assuming it was probably one of the teachers checking to see if students would soon be off to bed, she decided that not follow him. Even though he looked incredibly suspicious, she had enough detentions lined up for her that she did not feel like getting into further trouble.

Dismissing Malfoy's sneaky behaviour, she continued on her path to the dorm. Her thoughts started to lead her to realize that she should probably spend more time with Harry and Ron. Although, she got a lot of progress done on her essay, it still took her a great deal of will power to concentrate on her work and not on the euphoric feelings she got from partying. Perhaps if she spent more time with her two best friends, this would bring back some stability in her state of mind. Clearly drowning herself in her studies more so than usual was not doing the trick; therefore, she decided that spending time with Harry and Ron was her new goal for the rest of the week.

########## ########## ########## ########## ###########

Another week passed by, agonizingly slow in Hermione's opinion. She's was still on top of her work and she tried her best to be less cranky with her friends. She thought she was doing well so far because she hadn't heard any more complaints from her friends all throughout the week. Although all of these factors were in her favor, she still could not stop obsessing about the last time she wheeled.

It also didn't help make her feel better that the day after she had punched the blond wizard she had been called into Dumbledore's office do discuss further punishment for her actions. He had not displayed outright anger; however she could tell he was disappointed that she used violence, especially in front of her peers. She hated disappointing professors; it made her feel more shameful of the way she acted. He told her that he knew she was not a trouble making student and that Malfoy most likely provoked her, but this was not the right way to deal with whatever situation occurred that brought about her violent behaviour. Since she has never had a history of violent behaviour with other students, he informed her that the punishment Snape issued was sufficient enough. But he warned her that such actions were not tolerated at Hogwarts and if she ever attacked another student like that again, he might have to suspend her; or worse, expel her.

After dismissing her she sullenly left his office and proceeded with what was to be her daily routine for the following week. Every day of that week, she woke up just in time to head to class, immediately followed by her second class, followed by lunch, and in the afternoon she had her two other back to back classes. Then there was the dreaded two hour detention. Although, it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. She mostly kept to herself, and Malfoy rarely spoke a word to her. She had actually noticed that since she gave him a good hit to the face, he hadn't made anymore obnoxious comments regarding her summertime adventures. Though, he still made rude comments to her here and there, there were no comments about her 'taking'. However, she wasn't sure if he had really learned his lesson or if he was silently plotting when he was going to strike revenge on her. 'Spiteful jerk' she thought.

Irritated by the fact that they were not given chairs to sit on while they cleaned the cauldrons and dusty jars full of ingredients, the blond and brunette sometimes worked on the floor whenever their legs got tired of standing. To make sure that they couldn't transfigure anything into a chair, Snape confiscated their wands for the duration of their sessions.

Because the room was so cramped and stuffy, they both didn't bother to wear their uniform cardigans. As the detention progressed into an hour, Hermione was on her knees reaching for the next jar to clean on the bottom shelf. Without being aware, her skirt revealed quite a bit of skin on the back of her thighs.

Draco, who was also silently sitting on the floor, caught a glimpse of the peep show. He unconsciously stared for a few seconds, noticing how good she looked bent over with her legs slightly spread apart. Glimpses of how she had her eyes closed and head tilted back as she danced and grinded her hips into the guy's groin came rushing to mind. Quickly catching his perverted train of thought, he stamped out these thoughts as she turned around and continued to polish the jar.

Still unaware that he was looking at her innocent but slightly inappropriate pose, Malfoy thought, 'Get a grip! She's Hermione fucking Granger for crying out loud.' He knew that he must be seriously tired if even she was starting to turn him on.

"Could you pass me a new rag? This one's pretty caked with dirt," her voice grabbed his attention.

Without a word, he dunked the rag in the bucket of water beside him and rudely tossed it at her face before she could even blink.

Her face caught the blunt of most of the water, some spilling into her curly hair. Irritated beyond words, her eyes narrowed and she took the same rag and tossed it right back at him shouting, "Jerk!" However, he was prepared for this reaction so he caught the rag.

"You asked for a new rag so I gave you one. You're very ungrateful, you know that?" he said dunking it in the water a second time and threw it at Hermione again. This time she anticipated it, and tried to dodge the incoming rag, but she still gets sprayed with water.

"I don't have time for your stupid games, Malfoy," she stated, taking her own dirty rag and soaking it in the bucket beside her. She took the rag and whipped it, aiming at his pale face.

Having no time to crawl away and dodge her rag attack, he got hit in the face with her dirty used rag. "Ugh," he grunted in disgust. Feeling both angry and revolted that the witch dowsed him with a dirt filled rag, he took half his bucket of water and tossed it on her.

Barely having any time to acknowledge what is about to happen, Hermione was drenched in soapy water.

Drinking in her appearance, he suddenly howled with laughter. "I got to tell you, the wet rat look does not do wonders for you, Granger."

She was certainly furious now. Without thinking, she reached for her bucket, attempting to act out revenge upon him. However, anticipating her action once again, he lunged towards her. "Don't even think about using that bucket on me," he said as he knocked the bucket out of her hands. In the process of making sure he didn't get further drenched like the witch before him, he accidently fell on top of her. Though this is not what he had in mind, it worked out to his favor and he decided to keep her in place by holding her wrists down. To make sure he was in the position of power, he held both her wrists by the side of her head.

"Looks like you're in your rightful place in this world…beneath me. Mudblood scum," he said with distain as she wriggled underneath him.

"Shove off, Malfoy!" she shouted struggling to get him off of her. As he pinned her down, he couldn't help his eyes automatically wander from her face downwards. He noticed how her previously white, but now transparent shirt, clung to her heaving chest. Beyond his control, more images of her from that night began to flood into his mind. He recalled as some of her stray hairs clung to her neck as the hands of the guy she was dancing with began to glide upwards aiming to cup her breasts glistening with sweat.

As she continued to wiggle her way out of his grasp, her leg brushed against his inner thigh when she suddenly came to a freeze. She definitely felt the outline of his cock in his trousers.

Her eyes instantly grew wide in shock at the realization that he was getting turned on.

Embarrassed, he loosened his grip on her. He realized that she too was aware of his growing erection. He hadn't meant for it to happen, but the sight of her heaving beneath him soaking wet, clothes glued to her body was slightly arousing. Her constant wriggling didn't help matters either. He was a teenage boy after all!

Quickly crawling off her with the deepest shade of red, he distanced himself as far as possible from the witch. He tried to cover the form of his semi-hard on with his arm.

Before she could vocalize why the hell he had an erection, Snape barged in the room.

Taking in both of their wet appearances, he droned "I don't even want to hear it," he cut Hermione off before she could explain. "I'm just going to give you both 5 more days of detention. It seems like you both haven't learned your lesson," he droned on. "I'll fetch the mops so you both can clean up your mess for the remainder of this session. And don't think about continuing whatever mess you have created."

As Snape left to get the brooms, Hermione just shook her head and sighed in irritation. 'I will never finish these detentions.'

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

For the remainder of the evening, Hermione just wanted to relax and take it easy after the annoying and bizarre detention session with Malfoy. She thought there was no better place to relax and think than in the library. Now that her History of Magic essay was complete, she concerned herself with getting a head start on the Alchemy readings and read for a few hours.

After leaving the library, she witnessed Malfoy heading down the same corridor he snuck through last week. He looked just as sneaky as the last time. She knew she shouldn't follow him, knowing that it would only get her into more trouble. But her curious inner voice got the best of her. She wanted to know what he was up to. She knew it was Malfoy, so his curious behaviour probably wouldn't be associated with innocent or good intensions.

She was really having an intense inner battle, trying to decide whether to follow him or mind her own business. Unfortunately for her, her nosey side won out. As quietly as she could, she began to follow him attempting to keep a proper distance away from him.

After a few minutes of shadowing him, he began meander through one of the secret tunnels that led outside of Hogwarts. Though, she already knew about the tunnel because she had seen it appear on the Marauder's map.

Approximately five or six minutes after winding through the tunnel which twisted at every turn, she saw him arrive at the exit. He climbed a few stairs that led to a trap door which appeared above his head. She thought waiting a few minutes before following him through the exit would have been a good idea, so that he wouldn't be aware of her presence. As she slowly opened the door above her head, she was greeted by two wands.

"You're really rubbish at sneaking around. You're as quiet as an elephant."

'Damn,' she thought, she really thought she was being stealthy.

"You know it's really rude sticking your nose in other people's business." A boy roughly their age said with the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. She took in his dirty blond hair and face, and it dawned on her that this face was familiar. She just couldn't put her finger on where she had seen him though.

This boy's expression also mirrored Hermione's. Lowering his wand, he says, "I know you. You're Herms. It took me a second to recognize you in your dreary school uniform and sober state."

"Hey! You make it sound like I'm constantly 'wheeling' on a daily basis," she said defensively. Still trying to place his face, she asks, "Are you one of Kris' friends?"

"I'd say I'm more his dealer than friend. I'm Kol by the way. Speaking of which, I'll sell you the 'dust' for 5 Galleons," he said turning his head to Malfoy. Draco gave his friend a 'why the hell did you say that for?' look.

Recognizing the synonymous term for 'pixie dust', she shouted, "You hypocritical prick!" accusingly pointing her finger at Malfoy. "All this time you've been giving me crap about 'taking' and here you are buying pixie dust. I knew you were using," she said in her typical know-it all tone.

"Oh, shut up!" he rudely told Hermione fully lowering his wand. "And 5 Galleons? For this that little bag you're offering, are you mad?" he asks Kol. "Mates aren't supposed to rip each other off."

"Sorry, but the price of dust is now increasing, and I need to make my quota," he replies apologetically. "Tell you what, I'll sell it to you for 3 Galleons, it's the best price I can give you."

As they negotiated prices and fully lowered their wands, Hermione decided to completely step out of the tunnel and enter what looked like an old abandoned shed. The walls were immensely coated in dust, and there was hardly any furniture, save for a rickety table and a lonely stool.

Not caring that she fully joined them in the shed, Malfoy sighed in frustration and said, "Fine." He reluctantly handed his friend the money as Kol exchanged the small bag of pixie dust.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing. You have some nerve to call me a drug addict, when you're the one who's leaving school grounds to buy your drugs. If anyone here has a drug problem it's you!"

At this statement, the sandy blond haired wizard defended his friend. "I wouldn't decide to lecture him about abusing if I were you, Herms. I heard the last time you partied with Kris, you were the first one to jump at his offer of taking the dust," he paused after he said this. "Speaking of which, would you like to buy some? I know how much of a fan you are of it," he told her, dangling another tiny pouch in front of her wide brown eyes.

"One, don't call me Herms. I don't know you, and only my friends get to call me Herms. Two, are you out of your mind? I'm already in heaps of trouble from this idiot," she said pointing to Malfoy, "I don't need more problems by getting caught leaving school property past curfew to take drugs." Deciding she didn't want any more blights on her school records, she thought leaving the situation was the most logical plan she'd had today.

As she turned away from the two blonds to head towards the tunnel entrance, both of the young wizards quickly maneuvered around her to block her path. "Not so fast, Herms," Kol said slyly.

"How do we know you won't blab your big mouth about me buying the dust? Can't leave things to chance now can we?" Malfoy pointed out.

This got her defences up. What were they planning on doing with her? Were they going to obliviate her memories? She quickly drew out her wand in self-defence, prepared for any spells they might fire at her.

"Easy now," Kol said as both the boys raised their wands back. "There's no need for that, we were just going to invite you to stay with us and have a few drinks," he motioned to the fire whiskey in the corner. "Maybe we can have our own little party, pixie style," he suggested, once again shaking the small bag of dust with a huge grin plastered to his face.

Giving his friend a strange look, Malfoy stepped in and said, "I wasn't. Quite frankly a night of hanging out with Granger would be anything but fun. Besides, I was planning on obliviating her; she definitely won't keep her mouth shut about this," he said taking a menacing step towards her.

As her heart raced with adrenaline, she was about to defensively fire a curse which would knock the pair of them out. Unfortunately, before the curse could even escape her lips, Kol took a decent quantity of the light pink dust and blew it in her direction. Stunned by what just occurred, she momentarily froze and inadvertently inhaled the substance as Draco took a step back.

Eyes wide a as a dear caught in the headlights, she thought in distress, 'Are you kidding me?!'. This was the second time in her life that she got drugged without her consent. As frustration began to flow through her, she dreaded the inevitable event that would soon bring about the familiar feeling of being euphorically high.


	5. Candies

"What the fuck?! Did you just drug her?" Malfoy exclaimed. "Now we're really going to get in trouble. She definitely won't keep her mouth shut about this," he shook his head nervously.

"Calm down, mate. She just needed to calm down a little, so I gave her something that would do the trick. Besides she's no stranger to it, so she'll have a good time. And as for talking about this drug exchange to others, she won't open her mouth if she knows what's good for her. She's too involved now," his sandy haired friend reassured him.

She was filled with so much rage that she wanted to slap Malfoy's idiot friend. However, she knew that she had more restraint than that and tried to keep herself calm. "Why would you do that?! Do you know how badly addictive this substance is?" she shouted as she wiped the remaining dust from her nose and cheek. "There's a reason why I didn't want to take it!" she said as anxiety crept into her system. She started to nervously comb her hands through her tangled locks.

"Like I said, this is leverage to ensure that you tell no one about our exchange. If you squeal on us, we'll bring you down as well. They'll find traces of it in your blood, if they decide to give you a blood test," Kol stated.

Hermione started to make her way near the entrance to the tunnel.

"Well, there's no point in going back to school grounds if that's what you're thinking. You'll be wheeling in a few minutes, so you might as well just stay and enjoy the high," he tried to persuade her.

Out of nervousness, she began to pace back and forth. At this comment she had a brief déjà vu. This was turning into a realistic nightmare. It was like she was relieving the first time she got drugged. But this time it was worse. Although, part of her was having a mini panic attack, an even greater part of her was excited. She was eagerly anticipating the incredible high pixie dust would give her.

"Instead of staring as she uselessly paces, why don't you take some the dust you bought so we can go on with what we planned for tonight," Kol told Malfoy, his voice also pulled the witch out of her panicked reverie.

"I'm not really in the mood anymore, now that Granger's involved in the plans," he replied sourly.

Rolling his eyes, the other wizard said, "Come on, don't be such a grouch. Tell you what, if she begins to be a pest we can always just go somewhere else and ditch her."

"Hey!" Hermione objected, folding her arms in irritation. "I'm standing right here."

"Don't let this fun Friday night go to waste," he continued, ignoring her protest. He pulled out a bag of his own and dipped his finger in the dust. Making sure a good amount was on his index finger, he brought it to his tongue and made sure his finger was licked clean.

Draco huffed. "Fine. I'll take some, but the minute she starts to get annoying we're getting rid of her," he told his friend as he mimicked his actions and consumed the substance.

"That's the spirit!" Kol said joyfully tapped him on the back. Pulling out his wand he ignited the fire in the fireplace placed in the far corner of the small shed. Hermione wasn't even aware of the existing fireplace, nor was she aware of how dark the room was because of the bright moonlight cascading through the lonely window. Kol said another incantation to charm the flame to appear multicolored, and then he whispered a small charm that transfigured the table into something they could lie down and rest on. It looked like a weird hybrid between a giant bean bag and a mattress. It was electric lime green which really caught the witch's attention. He cast another spell which made it fluorescent so that it would glow in their dim environment.

Hermione had a doe-eyed expression as she extended her arm out, as if to touch the mattress which was a few feet away; however the guys didn't notice her slightly weird hand gesture.

"I brought a game of exploding snap for us to play," the drug dealer said advertising his pack of cards. "Plus I got some candies, for when the high really starts to kick in." He walked to the inflated beanbag mattress and sat down. He started to pull out the bonbons one by one. He pulled out Fizzing Whizzbees, Exploding bonbons, and Pepper Imps. It was the Pepper Imps that really caught her attention.

With eagerness in her step, Hermione made her way to the mattress and joined Kol. "Can I have some of the Pepper Imps?" she asked with eyes wide, pupils dilated, and a docile smile.

"Sure, help yourself," he told her as pulled out a box of Bertie's Flavored Beans for himself.

As she popped a few of the peppered imps in her mouth, Malfoy also decided to join them, sitting next to Kol.

Laughter erupted from the witch as smoke seeped out of her nose and ears. Both of the teenage boys fixed their attention towards her and her loud outburst. As her laughter started to die down, she regarded both of their expressions and laughed even harder. She knew nothing was particularly hilarious about the situation, but she had the impression that they were looking at her in an odd way. As she grasped her abdomen and laughed even harder, she said between breaths, "Why are you guys looking at me like that?" She fell backwards and laid down as she madly giggled.

Kol chuckled at her behaviour.

"We're not looking at you in any particular way…" Malfoy answered deadpanned.

"I believe her high just kicked in," his friend deduced. "Are you wheeling, Herms?"

"Yes, I am definitely wheeling. You need to try this," she said shoving the Pepper Imps in his face. "I feel like the Hogwarts express!" As he took the Imps from her, she roared with more laughter. With a sly smile, Kol considered her suggestion and popped the sweets in his mouth.

As the platinum haired teen regarded his good friend and the delirious witch, he shook his head at the surreal aspect of the situation. "I can't believe I'm getting high with Granger," he voiced his thought aloud as he grabbed the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo

Half an hour had passed since Hermione had felt her high kick in. The three teens created a triangle formation as they played the game of exploding snap. They ecstatically laughed as Draco dropped the card and it produced a miniature explosion on the mattress bean bag. It had felt like they were there for a substantial length of time as they animatedly acted as though they were all good chums. The bushy haired witch was leaning on Kol as she held her ribs; he in return casually laid his hand on her waist. As he started to slowly move his hand back and forth on her slightly exposed skin on her hip, she began to become aware of how great his hand felt on her skin. She was familiar with this feeling of increasing libido that came hand in hand with pixie dust. The warm, intimate atmosphere was not helping her arousal either: the multicolored flame from the fire place coupled with the music box Kol had magically produced to play some familiar muggle music made her feel more comfortable and at ease with Malfoy's friend. Many of his mannerisms reminded her of Kris, and at times Zuly; therefore, she felt more in her element in this environment, like the atmosphere she was used to when she went raving with her muggle friends. Beginning to arch her back at Kol's touch, Hermione desperately tried to fight the effects of the drug and decided to distance herself from the oncoming situation.

"I got an idea!" she said enthusiastically. "How about we go outside and eat some Fizzing Whizzbees?"

"I hate to admit it, but that sounds like a brilliant idea, Granger," Draco admitted with pupils dilated as wide as his grin.

Clumsily getting up from the soft mattress imitation, she grabbed the bonbons and made her way to the door as the boys eagerly followed suite. Before exiting the shed, Kol levitated the music box along with them so they could listen to the energetic tunes as they ventured outside. Fortunately, the weather was exceptionally mild for the autumn season; some would have even described it as a summer night. Looking back towards the outer appearance of the shed, she realized that it was situated on a miniature hill; the slope was not dangerously steep, but it was steep enough that one would roll down with mirth much like kids do when they're young.

Hermione opened the box and put a few of the sweets in her mouth. Within a matter of seconds, her feet departed from the ground and she floated higher towards the beautiful moonlit sky. It was like there was no gravity holding her down. Giggling in pure synthetic happiness, she propelled her arms in a flapping motion attempting to gain more air.

"Don't be a hog, pass the sweets."

Following his request, she dropped the box to Malfoy, which he skillfully caught. As he ate the Whizzbees, he gave some to his sandy haired friend as well. Shortly after, all three of them were floating in euphoria.

"This feeling is amazing!" she merrily commented.

"Gotta hand it to you, Herms, this was an excellent idea!" Kol replied.

At that moment Malfoy got the cheeky idea to cast a spell on his friend that would propel him backwards. The spell used moderate force to make Kol do a backflip. Laughing at Malfoy's trick, his friend rotated right side up and said, "You just started war!"

Kol retaliated with a propelling charm of his own and succeeded in knocking Draco backwards. After a few rounds of them attempting to target and dodge one another's spells along with Hermione cheerfully watched the entertaining match, Malfoy momentarily paused the battle.

"Hold on a minute. How come we're only hitting each other, while Granger misses out on all the fun?" At this comment both of the boys shared a brief mischievous glance of acknowledgement. Of course she knew what this glance entitled, but she was too late to dodge the attacks.

Before she could even yelp, they simultaneously blasted her with spells. As she was flew a few feet back she held her sides and stomach as she erupted with laughter. "Ahh!" she laughed in surprise. One of them had hit her with a tickling charm! And with that, Hermione joined in on the friendly game of the battle of the spells. Every now and then they had to refill on the candies to maintain zero gravity.

However, the airborne festivities came to an end upon their realization that there were no more sweets in the packaging. As they slowly began to float down to familiar ground, Kol announced that he was going to get more fire whiskey since the one inside the shed was empty. As he apparated to an unknown destination to retrieve the heavy liquor, Hermione turned to Malfoy and asked, "How on earth can he apparate? I'm sure he's not sixteen yet."

"He has his ways of breaking the rules," he responded with a trademark Slytherin smirk.

Taking in the sheer beauty of the natural scenery, she kneeled down on the lush grass. She didn't know why, but at that particular moment the grass caught her attention and appeared an exceptional shade of vibrant green. Malfoy mimicked her actions and joined her on the ground, running his pale hands through the blades of grass. He was aware that he was falling into the magnified stage of the dust. After approximately 45 minutes, all of their five senses affected by the high got even more magnified, truly unlocking an experience that was describable beyond words. As he leisurely passed his fingers lightly on the lawn, he felt the tip of each blade of grass, as if it was passing each crevice of his tiny finger prints. Loving this earthly feeling, he balled a patch in his hands as if he never wanted to let go of the grass and laid back down in Mother Nature's carpet. He turned to look at Hermione to see if she was also experiencing the phenomenal effects from the grass, and it appeared that she was. With her eyes closed, she appeared as if she was in a state of ecstasy from running her digits through the thick green substance. Opening her eyes to look at Malfoy, she joined him as she laid close beside him.

"Grass is so beautiful," she said. Malfoy nodded his head in awed agreement. "It's like it's the earth's luscious green hair. When I die, I hope I am reincarnated into the earth; so that way when people pass their hands through the grass, it's like their combing my hair."

With a blank stare, he slowly cranked his neck to face the witch. As she turned her head to look him in the eyes, he exploded with laughter. "That is total fucking nonsense!" he chuckled some more, and Hermione joined in on the merriment. "Oddly enough, I understand what you mean, but it's still nonsense."

As their laughter dissipated, Hermione sat back up and stared up at the luminescent alabaster full moon. She looked down at the slope a few feet away from where she sat and thought it would be a grand idea if she were to roll down the little hill. That way she could really get to feel the grass all around her.

Placing herself on her hands and knees, she crawled towards the edge of the slope. Propping himself on his elbows to get a better view of what Granger was attempting, he caught a glimpse of her skirt riding up, revealing a great portion of the back of her thighs. Her movement briefly reminded him of his earlier actions during detention that day. His mind still clouded by the magnified feeling due to the high, all the blood in his body rushed to his cock.

Too focused on cloaking herself in the grass, she laid down in a horizontal position and began to roll down the tiny hill. She innocently giggled at the feeling of each earthly follicle contacting every inch of skin that wasn't covered by her clothes. It was only six or seven rolls, but it felt like twenty.

Curious to experience the grass all over his body, Draco also rolled down the hill. As he joined Hermione at the bottom, he landed right next to her; his hand landed on her exposed midriff since her clothes were all shuffled from barreling down the slope. The touch of her skin was electrifying. He looked down at her face and his gaze made contact with her caramel coloured eyes.

Hermione was also feeling the impact of his touch. Her conscious mind was screaming at her to immediately stop her reckless and mental behaviour. 'This is Malfoy for crying out loud!' She desperately wanted to follow the instructions of her voice of reason, but her attention was too preoccupied with how amazingly sensual his touch felt. Lost in the moment, she looked up and stared deeply into his steel grey eyes.

As he regarded her disheveled appearance, he eyed how her long bushy hair was tousled around her face. Her shirt and tie was in disarray exposing just the slightest of cleavage and some of her flat belly; her skit was hitched exposing even more amounts of thigh. She had the appearance of just being properly fucked. He redirected his attention towards her face. As he observed his own miniscule reflection in her great brown orbs, and he was having similar thoughts to Hermione's. But at the moment, his other head was taking charge and stealing all the sense from his mind. As they stared deeper into each other's eyes, they heard the faint echoes of a mellow melody emitting from Kol's music box. The scene unfolding before them was like a terrible cliché romance scene, but they were too high as hell to give a damn at how cheesy the situation appeared.

Darting his eyes to her rosy and plump, yet small mouth he said, "Fuck it."

Before she could blink, he climbed on top of her and his lips collided against hers. For a fraction of a second, she was surprised, but then she responded to his actions by kissing him back.

The kiss was anything but sweet or romantic. It was raw and filled with hunger. There was an urgency to feel every inch of each other's body. One of his hands framed her hip as the other was placed on the phenomenal feeling grass attempting to keep him balanced so that he wouldn't crush her. Her hands tangled in his hair as she spread her legs apart to let him fit better between them. Groaning into the kiss, he pushed his pelvis deeper between her legs. She definitely felt his erection now. At this realization, flashes of their detention flooded her memory. Though, she was certainly freaked about it before, all sense went out the window now because she knew it was nothing more than the effects of the high that was influencing her behaviour. She arched her back and wrapped one of her legs around him giving him better access to move deeper into her body. There was nothing but the thin layer of her panties and his trousers that separated the full contact of his swollen member and her hot core.

But before the situation could escalate any further, Kol's voice abruptly pierced the moment. "Would you guys please stop swapping saliva? I want to can come join you without it being too awkward!" he yelled from the top of the slope.

His comment pulled their actions to a complete halt. As they both directed their eyes upward towards him, he bounced down the hill with the bottle in his hand. Their eyes returned to make contact with one another as the pair slowly pulled their bodies away from each other. Realization started to hit Hermione as to what just transpired between them. She hated this phase of the effects from the drugs, the part when she began to feel sluggish and sober up.

"Do you guys want another hit of dust?" Kol questioned as he took out the small packet and dipped his finger into the powder. "We took it about an hour ago, so we should take another dose before the effects start to wear off."

But it was too late, the witch's head started to clear and the voice of reason which had escaped her began to creep back into her consciousness. She looked into Malfoy's eyes and realized he was still exceptionally high because of his doe-eyed expression and lazy smile (probably because he still wanted to snog her senseless). She figured that she was becoming sober because she had ingested the dust before the boys had taken their share.

Confusion and shame simultaneously poured into her. She felt immense embarrassment for letting herself kiss him in the first place; but she felt even more shame at the realization that she liked it, even after the drug was wearing off.

Shaking her head in disgrace, Hermione stood up slowly and clumsily as her body was exhausted from the immense euphoria she felt moments ago. This was one of the things she truly hated about pixie dust. She hated feeling drained and sluggish like every nerve in her body was shot to hell. Mindy had described the after-effects as "crashing".

"Where are you going, Herms?" Kol called out to her.

As quickly as she could, she tried to make her way to the shed where the tunnel was located in her "crashing" state. She wanted to distance herself from the situation, now that she was no longer fully under the influence of the drug. She didn't fully process the events that just occurred because she was still in some sort of shock that she just got high during the school year, and with Malfoy no less!

"Don't go Granger; we were just starting to have fun."

"Yeah, why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden?" Kol asked as he grabbed her arm, attempting to make her stay.

"I need to leave, now! I'm sober and there's no way in hell I'm taking more. You got what you wanted, I got high with you lot and now I won't speak a word of your drug trade-off. Just let me go so I can forget this night ever happened!" Her voice began to escalate as her eyes started to brim with fresh unshed tears.

"Alright! Have it your way. No need to get so touchy about it," he said releasing her arm.

Hermione kept back her tears, but she was truly upset. She had tried so hard to distance herself from the thoughts and temptations of taking T or pixie dust; but thanks to this jerk, she would have to start all over again to rid herself of the addictive thoughts she knew would soon haunt her over the next following weeks.

Turning away from the sandy haired blond, she jogged to the shed.

Malfoy groaned as he laid back into the lush grass. "Why did you have to interrupt us? She wouldn't be freaking out if you hadn't come along and told us to stop," Hermione herd the Slytherin say as his voice became fainter as she approached the wooden shelter.

All she wanted to do was sleep in her cozy bed and forget this whole night ever happened. As she entered the shed and accessed the tunnel, she increased her speed as she ran back to Hogwarts grounds. She just hoped that she wouldn't encounter Filch's cat on her way to the dormitory. The last thing she needed was more detentions or suspensions.


	6. The Come Down

**A/N: Happy New Year's everyone! Sorry for the long update, but school and the holiday break took control of me. I hope you enjoy the update, and please review to let me know if you like or dislike where the story's heading.**

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"Come on sleepy head! The boys sent me up to come get you," she said rousing the lifeless body underneath the layers of covering.

"Leave me alone," the young witch grunted.

"Come on Hermione! They're waiting downstairs for you. You need to get up and have lunch with the rest of us; it's almost one in the afternoon for crying out loud."

Ginny had never seen her brother's best friend sleep away half of the day. She assumed that she must have pulled an all-nighter studying or something to that equivalent.

In a last attempt to wake her up, she grabbed the blanket playfully and dragged it off to the foot of her bed, exposing the brunette to the harsh reality of day light.

Emitting the most un-lady like noise, the witch shouted, "I said leave me the hell ALONE!". Ginny would have laughed at the sight of the brunette's groggy appearance; however, the fact that Hermione used that biting tone with her sobered her up. The 5thyear teen was now annoyed.

"Take it easy, it was all in good fun."

"Well, I'm not amused," she said with the utmost bitter expression. "Can you just leave my room so I can sleep in peace?" She demanded as she reached for her blankets at the footing of her bed.

Uninterested in experiencing more of her cranky attitude, Ginny rolled her eyes and headed towards the exit of Hermione's room. As she arrived at the arch of the door, the red head turned one last time and said, "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I don't like your new bitchy attitude. You might want to tone it down before you start pushing away your friends." With that final comment, she quickly turned on her heals and continued on her way to rejoin the boys before Hermione could reply.

Hermione put her head down in shame. She hadn't meant to sound so rude, but she just felt so drained, as if every nerve in her body was shot to hell. She would keep it in mind that when she ran into Ginny later, she would apologize for her behaviour.

But for the time being, she just wanted to crawl back underneath the covers and not come out until next week. Her head was pounding and her eyes felt worn out, as if all the cones in her retina had an overload of processing too many colours. Her arms and legs felt like dead weight as if they were dragging cement blocks for hours. However, the most harm she felt she experienced from the aftermath of 'taking' was not physical; it was psychological.

Out of the various times Hermione has taken drugs, she had never felt more ashamed than she felt right now. To be fair, it was not as if she willingly wanted to take part in the activities of the previous night; but that still didn't prevent the feelings of confusion and shame she felt. She normally just ignored the fact that she snogged guys like Kris on T or dust, but this time it was different. If she could get that intimate with someone she thoroughly disliked, like Malfoy, then it was becoming alarmingly obvious that she couldn't control her actions on drugs. This revelation scared the crap out of her. What scared her even more was the fact that she liked tasting him on her lips, even now that she was sober. Just thinking about how he was pressed between her thighs made her blush. Shaking her head furiously, she shoved these memories away.

'Get a grip!' she thought defiantly. She rationalized that she only made out with him because she was high; there was no reason to make a bigger ordeal out of it.

Closing her eyes, she let the much appreciated sleep take over her body once more, her brain too exhausted to even recall any dreams she was about to subconsciously create.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

By the time Hermione awoke it was roughly quarter to four in the afternoon. One would think with the amount she had slept that she would be fully rejuvenated and well rested. However, she looked like an extra that belonged in a muggle zombie movie. Tired of lying in her gloomy room all day, she slowly made her way to the common female Gryffindor bathroom. She would have jumped out of fright when she saw her reflection in the mirror, if it wasn't for the fact that the after effects of dust made her body sluggish. Her eyes darted from looking at the dark circles around her eyes, then made her way up to the bird's nest she called hair, and then regarded her pasty, sun deprived skin.

She looked a right mess.

As she splashed a healthy amount of cool water on her face, she suddenly remembered detention.

'Shit!', she thought as her eyes widened. She absolutely could not be late to detention; otherwise Snape would not hesitate at the opportunity to dish out more punishments. Needless to say, this realization made her speed up her actions as she brushed her teeth then proceeded to hop into the shower.

Ten minutes later, she was running down the hallway down into the dark dungeons of Hogwarts. On her way out of the common room, she ran into none other than her two favorite boys.

"Have you just woken up?!" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Sorry, Ron I'll meet up with you guys later. If I stop now I might be late for detention," they heard her say as the end of her sentence trailed off as she ran farther away.

As the witch frantically ran through the door, Ron turned to Harry with wide eyes. "You were right Harry; something is definitely up with Hermione." The green eyed wizard merely nodded his head in silent agreement.

Out of breath and with seconds to spare, Hermione reached the storage room and found Malfoy residing in the room as well. He lacked his usual bored expression; this time a mask of exhaustion which mirrored the young witch's replaced his face.

Without a word, she stood at the opposite end of the room with a fair distance between them. He briefly connected his lack luster grey eyes with her dull brown ones, and they instantly broke off their gaze. As the seconds grew, the atmosphere became increasingly more awkward.

Thankfully, the pair did not have to endure the awkwardness for much longer, as their potions professor entered the room.

They knew the drill. Wordlessly putting his hand out, they handed over their wands, which would be held hostage for the duration of an hour. In exchange for the wands, he gave them their familiar cleaning toothbrushes and conjured soapy water to appear in the buckets on the floor. He then proceeded to exist as silently as he came in.

With the presence of the professor now absent, the silence was defining once again. To alleviate the silence they both got to work with the utmost lethargic motions.

oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo

One would think that after 20 minutes, the silence would dissipate and the awkwardness would dissolve, but that was definitely not the case in this situation. If anything, the atmosphere became even more stifling.

Finally, Malfoy couldn't take it anymore.

"If you tell anyone about last night, you'll regret it," his voice pierced the mute environment.

Hermione tried to give him the most quizzical expression she could muster. "Why in the world would I tell anyone? I certainly don't want to broadcast that we…did what we did last night," the word snogged couldn't get past her vocal cords.

Looking deeply offended, the wizard responded, "I'm the one who should be ashamed, not you. Many girls would jump at the opportunity to be in your position last night."

At his words, she just gave him a blank stare. "I'm not going to even dignify that with a response. No matter what I say, you're massive ego will never deflate." And with that, she silently returned to scrubbing a cauldron.

"…So it's established, we will never to speak of last night's events?" Malfoy asked.

She looked him straight in the eye and said "I don't know what you're talking about." This confirmed that the matter was closed for discussion.

Now that the subject was laid to rest, the tension was substantially (but still a bit) less awkward. They continued to scrub away at the potion supplies wordlessly.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

It was now 6 o'clock and dinner was about to be served in the Hall. This was Hermione's opportunity to apologize to Ginny for her earlier actions. Spotting long red hair, she ventured to the Gryffindor table where Ginny was sitting next to two other 5th year students. As she approached them, their conversation died down as they stared up at the slightly older teen.

"Hello Ginny, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"What for? I don't particularly feel like getting more of your crabby attitude," she said with a hint of ice in her tone.

"I want to apologize for earlier. I know it's not an excuse, but I was up all night studying and barely got any sleep. That was no reason to take out my exhaustion on you, for that I'm sorry."

Looking at the witch, she knew that her apology was sincere. "I accept your apology. Just don't make a habit out of yelling at me like that again, because I won't stand for you doing that all the time."

She could tell that Ginny was still a little sour about the situation, but at least she accepted her apology. With that, she nodded at the youngest Weasley witch and joined the other Weasley at the opposite end of the table.

"Finally! We haven't seen you all day. How was detention?" Ron inquired.

"Boring as usual," she replied.

"Why were you so tired today? You didn't wake up until late in the afternoon. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen you wake up past 11 in the morning," Harry stated pensively.

"Oh…I was studying until early in the morning and had barely gotten any sleep," Hermione lied.

The red head and the raven haired wizards made eye contact, one which was not lost beyond the young witch.

'They know I'm lying,' she thought in a panic.

However, if they were onto her lies, they never voiced her deception. They merely nodded and changed the topic.

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The long and tedious Saturday came to a close, and the trio now resided in their common room, ready to retire for the evening. As the boys said goodnight to their female friend, they waited for her to reach the higher levels of the tower so that she was out of earshot.

"What do you think she's hiding?" Harry whispered.

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure, she wasn't studying last night. We both heard Lavender say she was missing from her bed when it was 4 in the morning. Besides, there's no reason for her to study all night, it's not even exam season."

"She clearly doesn't want us to know what she's doing; she lied directly to our faces. Even if we tell her that we know she's hiding something from us, I highly doubt she would let us in on her secret," Harry responded to Ron.

Ron took a moment to think about the best approach to confront his friend. "Why don't we just ask her up front? It's as simple as that. And if she lies to us again we can find another way to find out what she's up to."

"Alright, we'll ask her, but it can't seem like we're accusing her. Whatever it is she's obviously nervous of how we'll react to her secret."

And with that, the two boys headed to their room to get a good night sleep as well.

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Sunday had come and gone, just as lethargic as Saturday, and it was now the beginning of another school week.

As Hermione sat in her second period transfigurations class, she attentively listened to professor McGonagall as she explained the new method of transfiguring frogs into liquid. Organisms were much harder to transfigure than inanimate objects, especially when one had to transfigure a solid to a liquid. Thus, the muggleborn knew she needed a great deal of concentration to perform this magic. She knew she would be able to transfigure it though; she had practiced it in secret the year before to get a head start.

Upon finishing her lecture, McGonagall instructed the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors to turn the little green animals into water. As per usual, Hermione was paired with Ron, since transfiguration was not his strongest subject. Hermione would always transfigure first, then Ron would follow suite as she gave him tips on what to do and what not to do. Knowing that this exercise should be a piece of cake, the bushy haired witch stood with confidence and uttered the chant which would transform the frog. However, much to Hermione's surprise, a tiny sparks flew out of the tip of her wand and the frog remained intact. Ron gave her a look of disbelief. Clearing her throat, she waved her hand in the same motion and said the chant with determination. Once again nothing occurred. The same pathetic spark was emitted from the wand, as if it had no more magic to channel.

"Professor, it appears that something is wrong with my wand," Hermione told the aged educator with worry.

McGonagall approached her to assess her malfunctioning wand, "It appears that you have either broken your wand or have been drained of your magic," The elder witch commented quizzically with a hint of suspicion in her gaze. "Have you cracked your wand Ms. Ganger?"

"I don't think so, professor."

She silently regarded younger witch with escalating suspicion. "Well, it looks like you'll have to wait after class to assess root of the problem."`

Stunned, Hermione took a seat back down and she stared wide eyed at Ron and Harry.

"What's wrong with your wand Hermione?" Harry asked.

"…I don't think it's my wand…I think it's me," she whispered in a panic.

"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be alright," Ron tried to reassure her.

Looking at the both Harry and Ron, she told them, "Thanks Ron," she said meekly. "Well, don't let my transfiguration problems stop you from completing the exercise," she told the boys, trying to distract their attention away from herself. Luckily they agreed, and continue on their own assignment of transforming the frogs.

'How could I have been so stupid?! I forgot pixie dust drains magic for a limited time!' She thought, distressed. It was known in the magical world that when a witch's or wizard's magic was drained, that they were either involved with dark magic or they were involved with various magical properties that were illegal in the wizarding world. Judging by the odd look she gave her moments ago, she knew professor McGonagall immediately suspected that Hermione was up to something since her wand was not broken. As her mind started to rush with anxiety of how to not get caught red handed at taking drugs, she had to think quick before the end of the class was over.

The only thought running through her mind was, 'I can't get expelled! I can't get expelled!' and before she could stop herself, she bent part of the tip of her wand. It wasn't completely bent, but it certainly made a visible crack in the wood for it to malfunction when performing spells. At least this way, when McGonagall would inspect her wand she could say that her transfiguration didn't work because the wand needed to be fixed. She looked up to see if anyone had seen her, and luckily no eyes were on her. However, she now had another problem on her hands; she had a broken wand.


	7. Karinas

**Author's Note: Apologies for the long delay in the latest chapter post. I was extremely busy and I had other priorities, but I hope you enjoy this chapter. I will try to post future chapters more quickly.**

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She couldn't breathe. Unbeknownst to the rest of her peers and professor, she was having an exceptionally hard time breathing evenly. The realization that she had broken her wand had just hit her like a ton of bricks.

Sheer panic was all she could feel at this moment. What had she just done!?

'Oh my God!', she frantically thought after realizing she had purposefully broken her only source of expressing magic.

She waited silently as she watched Ron perform the spell with a blank gaze. She was looking, but not truly processing anything that was presently going on within the classroom. All she could think of was how utterly stupid she was for being so careless and getting herself into this mess.

After twenty minutes of hearing various masculine and feminine voices utter chants to perform the magic on the frogs, class was dismissed by the elderly witch.

"Ms. Granger, may you come see me?" professor McGonagall asked. "I would like to speak with you for a few moments."

Trying her hardest to mask the panic she felt, she replied, "Yes, professor." She really hoped that the elder woman could not hear the escalating rhythm of her heart pounding against her ribcage.

"We'll wait for you outside Hermione," Harry told her.

After giving them a brief nod, she grabbed her heavy book bag and approached the transfiguration professor.

"Ms. Granger, may you please hand over your wand? If your wand is broken, we need to get you a replacement as soon as possible or your grades might decrease exponentially."

Silently handing her now defective wand into the educator's wrinkled, slender fingers, McGonagall investigated the wand with mute seriousness. As the young witch felt the pounding in her ears and felt her stomach drop simultaneously, she watched as McGonagall had finally laid her eyes on the miniscule but ever present crack in Hermione's wand.

"It appears that there is a small fracture in your wand, Ms. Granger. I will make arrangements so that you can go to Diagon Alley to retrieve a new one."

At those words, Hermione let out a small breath of relief, hoping that the action was lost beyond the old witch. She hoped she did not look as relieved as she felt because that would instill suspicion as to why she was nervous in the first place.

"Although, I am curious as to how this fracture occurred in your wand; when I asked you earlier whether you thought your wand was broken, you seemed sure that it was fully functional."

Quickly trying to come up with a seemingly possible lie, she said "I honestly don't know, the fracture probably occurred when I accidently sat on it the other day."

Silently staring at the young witch, McGonagall just nodded her head in agreement to Hermione's theory of how she broke her wand. However, the elder witch was not convinced.

'Seriously?! That's the best lie you could come up with?' She was mentally kicking herself for such a lame lie. However, McGonagall had not questioned her further.

"I will write you a permission form so that you will be escorted to Diagon Alley to purchase a new wand for the next Hogsmeade trip. Luckily for you that will be this weekend, therefore you don't have to wait too long without having a wand."

And with that, Hermione said, "Thank you and have a good day professor." She then faced away from her to exit the classroom.

'Phew! That was a close call,' the brunette thought in relief. But something told her that the professor was not convinced about her story. She would have to be more cautious around this teacher.

And Hermione was correct in her assumption. As the Gryfindor left her classroom, she knew that something was not right with Hermione. She found it extremely suspicious that Ms. Granger had not even noticed that her wand was not functioning until her second period class, and that she clearly lied about how it became defective. Something was off about her. Although she could not prove that she was up to something strange, she made sure to keep a close eye on her from now on.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

Hastily making her way beyond McGonagall's radar, Hermione greeted her friends right outside the classroom just as they promised her.

"So what did Professor McGonagall want to talk to you about?" Harry asked.

"She wanted to know why my wand was defective. It turns out that there's a slight fracture on it, which explains why it wasn't working during the lesson today," she replied a little too smoothly for her liking. She was really digging herself a deeper hole with these lies. Part of her goody-two-shoes conscience acknowledged that the more people she lied to, the easier it was becoming. She didn't like the fact that she was lying, yet again to her best friends. But it had to be done. Had they known that she had purposefully broken her wand, that would have led to further questions such as why would she need to in the first place. She internally shuttered at the thought of if they found out that she had done pixie dust with Malfoy.

At her brief explanation as to why she stayed behind after class, Ron looked at his female friend and said, "That's odd. When did your wand get broken?"

"I honestly don't know," she lied again.

Ron and Harry connected their suspicious gaze with one another. It was a short look that was not lost beyond the young intelligent witch.

"Well I'm famished, shall we grab some lunch?" She asked, trying to divert their attention away from the subject.

Letting the subject go, for now, the Gryffindor trio headed towards the Great Hall to eat their meals.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

After the three friends had eaten and chatted with their peers during part of their lunch period, Hermione excused herself and told them she was going to the library to do some quick research before her next lesson started. She mentally patted herself on the back for not lying. She was indeed going to do some research, but it was nothing school related. Hermione briskly made her way to the library and honed in on the section she was looking for: magical plants. She remembered from her little escapade with Kol and Malfoy that the origins of the pixie dust came from a plant located in Peru. Even though she was high as a kite, she was still naturally curious as to where the drug came from; therefore, she had asked Kol about its origins. The young German wizard had told her that dust was expelled from flowers called _karinas_. Hermione was thankful that she had thought to ask about the flower so that she could investigate how the drug worked as well as its side effects. She had an idea that the substance was addictive, but how addictive was it?

As she was roamed around the herbal section of the library, she found the perfect book where the plant had to be listed. Magical Herbology Encyclopedia: 57th edition. She frantically shifted to the listing of plants that started with the letter K. '_Kabollis, Kallies…Kamol-root...Karinas!_' Eureka!

Right below the name of the plant was magical moving image depicting the flower. The image was of a beautiful exotic pink orchid that released shimmery dust into the air. Her eyes wondered further down the page to read the description of the flower.

_**Karina**_:

_A flower located in Peru. When diluted and boiled down, it is used to make various potions, such as: love potions, friendship potions, lust potions, happy-mood altering potions, energy potions, or calming potions. Much of the magical properties are extracted from the powder substance that resides in the bulb of the flower. The powder is released when the flower wants to catch a prey, such as a passing fly. The dust will momentarily stun and relax the insect, thus making it an easy target for the Karina to catch. In its raw form, the powder is very dangerous due to its addictive nature. Some wizards have licked it or inhaled it through their nose, thus giving them symptoms of: euphoria, unfocused attention, enhanced sexual behaviour, magnified senses (hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell), and increased energy. Although these effects are not harmful, the powder substance triggers a reward system in the brain that is similarly triggered by illegal muggle drugs, such as ecstasy. Wizards and Witches can become easily addicted when ingesting the substance, thus increasing the likelihood for them to ingest more of the powder. However, a main side effect of consuming the powder is that after every episode, a witch or wizard will experience sad or agitated mood swings, lack of energy, and _temporary loss_ or _weakening_ of their magic. Therefore, the more they ingest the powder, the more it will drain their magic. Due to the dramatic dependence to the powder, wizarding communities in numerous countries have made the substance illegal. There are only a few countries which have decriminalized the substance, making the dust legal in small quantities. _

Finding out a little bit more information on the origins of Pixie Dust made Hermione feel a little bit more at ease. She now had more knowledge about the drug she was slowly gravitating towards.

Shutting the herbology encyclopedia, she headed out of the textbook sanctuary, and headed for her next class now that lunch was almost over.

########## ########## ########## ########## ##########

Hermione had gone to her alchemy course after her lunch during 3rd period. She later rejoined Harry and Ron for their last course of the day, Potions. Both courses were extremely interesting, at least to Hermione anyways. She eagerly listened to her professors as she scribbled down every word they said with her quill. Although, it was only theory based lessons, she was extremely grateful to whichever deity that existed that none of those two courses required her to use a wand. She did not want to be forced to explain to her teachers why she could not use her wand.

At the end of their potions lesson, Snape had dismissed the class, and the witch had parted ways with the Gryffindors. She made her journey down the dark, dank dungeons of Hogwarts. This time, she arrived to detention first. She opened the door to the familiar spacious closet and stood in a corner waiting for Malfoy and Snape to arrive.

After a few minutes, she spotted greasy black hair, followed by platinum locks stepping through the door. Once again, the Slytherin professor wordlessly handed out toothbrushes to the two teens, and in return they gave over their wands (not that it was going to help Hermione anyways).

As per usual, they silently got to work. After approximately 15 minutes of scrubbing away at the dirty shelves caked with years of dust, Hermione broke the silence.

"This is an odd question," she began, "but are you having any problems expressing magic?" she asked.

With a smirk, he responded, "No. Why? Are you having trouble with your spells and charms, Granger?"

Glaring at Malfoy, she paused before answering, deciding whether or not she should tell him her powers were temporarily drained. "It's just that after _that_ night," she referred to the bizarre night they all got high together, "my magic seems to be temporarily out of order. At first I thought it was my wand, but now I realize it must be an effect from…that night." She didn't want to even say the word dust out loud, fearing that unwanted ears would hear their conversation.

Malfoy's cocky smirk expanded. "You're wondering why my powers aren't drained aren't you?"

She nodded.

"It's because my pureblood is more superior than your dirty blood," he told her with a smug smile.

'The nerve of this jerk!' Hermione thought furiously. She should have known he would have come up with such a cockamamie answer.

Shaking her head in annoyance, the young witch just muttered, "Never mind."

With that said, she ignored him for the rest of the detention.

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The week progressed, and it was slow and uneventful. On Tuesday, Hermione was given a letter, written by McGonagall, explaining why she was unable to use a wand for the remainder of the week. This saved her the trouble of having to explain how she got her wand broken and fabricate more intricate lies as to how that came about. Wednesday had come and gone, and then Thursday had passed much to Hermione and Malfoy's anticipation. They were happy that it was Thursday because it was the last day of their detention. No more scrubbing 30 years of dirt with a tooth brush, or handling dirty soap water. And most importantly, Hermione no longer had to endure Malfoy's presence within the cramped walk in closet. Things were just awkward ever since they had made out in the grass last Friday night, and the Gryffindor was more than happy to escape the awkward afternoons. After their last detention, Hermione merely studied and went to bed early to have a good rest.

And it was now once again Friday, and Hermione was happy because today was the Hogsmeade trip. This meant that she would finally be able to buy another wand. Although, the only places to purchase a wand was in Diagon Alley, McGonagall had told her that she would escort the student to the Alley after classes were finished while the rest of her peers were in Hogsmeade.

Just as she had done when she was 11 years old, she wondered into Olivander's shop and let the wand choose her. The feeling of the wand was not as good as her previous one; however, it was the next best thing.

Upon returning from Diagon Alley, the Gryffindor professor had told Hermione that there was still more than enough time to join her friends and enjoy the Hogsmeade trip.

As Hermione separated from her professor, she walked on the outskirts of the village and headed towards the heart of the town. She spotted the Shrieking Shack and a flood of memories came rushing to her mind. She remembered how she stared so intensely into the Slytherin's eyes, and how he rolled on top of her and felt his rock hard cock between her legs. She blushed furiously. Shaking her head to rid herself of the memories she continued walking past the shack. That is, until she spotted familiar sandy blond hair. The hair belonged to a male, he was facing the other direction but Hermione was sure that the hair style belonged to none other than Kol. It appeared he was talking to Malfoy because she saw the typical Malfoy blond hair in front of the sandy haired wizard. It appeared that he had sold him a small vile of liquid, although, Hermione could not pinpoint what the liquid was from that distance. This was no surprise, as he was probably dealing more drugs to the Malfoy heir.

Upon seeing, the brunette approach their direction, Draco rolled his grey eyes. "Aren't you ever tired of stalking me?"

Hermione let out a huff of irritation. "I was not following you. I merely came back from Diagon Alley and was heading back towards the center of Hogsmeade."

Kol turned around to see who his friend was addressing, and he smiled. "Hey, Herms. Back for a refill?" he asked holding the tiny plastic bag.

"One, my name is not Herms, it's Hermione. And two, are you out of your mind?" she asked incredulously.

"Your other friends get to call you Herms, why can't I?" the German teen asked with a sly smile.

"Because you're not my friend!" Hermione shrieked.

"Ouch. That hurt my feelings," Kol replied in mock sadness as he clutched his heart. "Could have fooled me with the way you were acting with us last Friday. You acted like you were my best friend; like you've known me for years," he said with an ever increasing smile.

"You know very well it was only because of the Pixie Dust, which you drugged me without my consent, might I add."

"Oh, come on, Herms. You know you liked it," he jokingly nudged her elbow. However, Hermione recoiled her elbow out of annoyance. "Tell you what, why don't you join us again tonight? They'll be more of us this time. I'm inviting a few friends from my school. It'll be like a little party, just like the ones you have with your other muggle friends. "

"No." Malfoy rudely interjected. "She is not tagging along with us. Why do you keep inviting her?"

"Ignore him,"

"I always do," the witch quickly replied.

Kol chuckled, "The get together starts at 11:00 tonight," he continued.

"I really don't think that's a good-"

Kol cut her off, "I know you're dying to have some more dust. Come on, it will be a lot of fun and you know it." Hermione hated to admit it, but a really big part of her wanted to go. Besides she preferred 'taking' when there were more people around. That mean they would probably dance to the music, and young witch loved to dance while she was wheeling. She only liked to dance when she was high, since it diminished her inhibitions; she was far too shy to let anyone see her dancing when she was sober.

However, before she could give him a definitive answer on whether or not she was coming to the pixie party, she spotted Harry and Ron heading towards her direction, and apparently they saw her too. 'Crap!' she thought. Their faces were masked with quizzical expressions, curious as to why their friend was talking to the ferret and a stranger near the outskirts of the village. They approached nearer and Harry opened his mouth.

"Hermione, I thought you were in Diagon Alley."

Uh oh. She had some explaining to do.


End file.
